The Case of the Backward Mule

Ten

Inspector Jim Malloy of Homicide greeted Terry Clane with the cordial enthusiasm that one customarily shows towards a rich relative.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Mr. Clane,” he said, wrapping Clane’s hand with duck, powerful fingers. “I suppose you remember me all right. I worked on that Mandra murder case — a most interesting...”

“I remember you perfectly,” Clane said.

“Well now, that’s nice of you. That’s interesting, the idea that a man like you would remember just a dumb cop. Now, of course, with me, I remember you because it’s my business to remember people. And then, of course, we don’t ordinarily meet people like you, but you’re meeting average people like me every day, lots of them. And now you say you have another body down here?”

“A body, not another body.”

“That’s right, that’s right. You’ll pardon me. I was thinking of that other case. And this body, do you happen to know who he is?”

“George Gloster.”

“Gloster, Gloster. Now I’ve heard that name... Let’s see, this is a warehouse, isn’t it?”

“That’s right. Eastern Art Import and Trading Company.”

“Well, well, well, I knew I’d heard the name Gloster before somewhere. Now this man Horace Farnsworth that was murdered a while back — he was a member of this Eastern Trading Company, or whatever you call it, wasn’t he?”

“I believe he was.”

“Well now, let’s just go take a look,” Inspector Malloy said. “I take it you didn’t touch anything? Of course, you wouldn’t — you’ve been all through this before. It isn’t like talking with an amateur, so to speak.”

“I touched the telephone,” Clane said, “because it was the only chance I had to get the police department. There aren’t many phones around here. You could walk for miles in this district without finding a phone.”

“You could for a fact,” Malloy said. “Well, we’ll just discount that then. Your fingerprints on the telephone. Fingerprints anywhere else?”

“I may have touched a chair or two inadvertently, before I realized what I was up against.”

“I see. Of course, you shouldn’t have done that, Mr. Clane, but you’ll learn. You’ll learn as you have more experience. You’ll learn.”

“I don’t want any more experience.”

“Well, of course, of course! Now let’s see. We go right in here and the lights are on. Were they on when you came, Mr. Clane?”

“They were not,” Clane said.

“You turned them on?”

“I did.”

“Well now, are you a member of this Eastern Trading Company?”

“No, I am not a member of the Eastern Art Import and Trading Company. Perhaps I’d better tell you my story after you’ve looked around a bit.”

“Well, I’ll just take a look. Now the light switch is right here by the door. You turned this on?”

“Yes.”

“Then that’ll account for another fingerprint. You’ll have to remember that — your fingerprint on the light switch. Then what did you do?”

“I went through this door here to the left.”

“That’s right, the door in this room. Oh — there it is. There’s the body.”

“There’s the body,” Clane said.

“Just like it was when you arrived?”

“That’s right.”

“You didn’t move anything?”

“No.”

“Good boy,” Malloy said. “You’re learning, you’re learning. Well now, let’s see. There’s a window open over there. You didn’t open that window?”

“No.”

“It was open like that when you came?”

“Yes.”

Malloy turned back to one of the men on Homicide. “Sammy, run around and take a look under that window. Be careful now — you might find a footprint or perhaps the mark of a jimmy on the window sill. Be careful you don’t mess things up. Just sort of tiptoe around and give it the once-over. Now let’s see, there’s the body lying over there, feet toward us, head toward the telephone, lying on its stomach, head turned a little bit to the right, right hand outstretched and about even with the head, left hand doubled back and about even with the man’s belt. You can identify him? You say that’s Gloster?”

“That’s Gloster.”

“You went over and took a look?”

“I went over and took a look.”

“You shouldn’t have done that. You should have identified him after we got here.”

“I had to use the telephone,” Clane said.

“That’s right, that’s right. You went over there to use the telephone. See anything else while you were mere?”

“I just used the phone, that’s all. I did notice where a bullet had embedded itself in the boards.”

“A bullet? Well now, that’s interesting. You looked at it pretty carefully? Sure it was a bullet?”

“I just saw the end of it. It’s a round object that looks like a bullet.”

“You didn’t touch it?”

“No.”

“That’s fine. No fingerprints of yours on the bullet then. That’ll help. Now if you’ll just step outside, Mr. Clane, and let our men get busy here, we’ll perhaps find out a lot more things. There’s a little fingerprinting to do, and a little checking up. You know how those things are. By the way, here’s a pile of canned goods and a cot. Looks as though someone had been sleeping here. Did Gloster live here?”

“I don’t know. I shouldn’t think so.”

“I wouldn’t think so either. Hardly a place for a man to live. Perhaps a night watchman has been sleeping here. But there’s been a lot of cooking, hasn’t there?”

“Apparently.”

“Someone lived here, someone who was rather neat. Yes, I’d say neat as a pin. Dishes all washed up nice and clean. Empty cans all stacked in a big wastebasket. Quite a few empty cans there. Apparently the man didn’t have much of an opportunity to get out to dispose of his garbage. Now that’s interesting.”

Clane said nothing.

“Very interesting indeed,” Inspector Malloy went on. “Now if this here Gloster was a member of this Far Eastern what-do-you-call-it Company, then there’s a pretty good chance he knew this Edward Harold that the police are looking for. Don’t you suppose he did?”

“I suppose it’s a natural assumption.”

“Did you know that he did?”

“I think that he did.”

“Well now, that’s interesting. Now wouldn’t it be funny if... Well, I guess we won’t bother you any more right now, Mr. Clane. You’re probably a little squeamish about these things. If you’ll step out and wait in the police car, you’ll find one of the boys there to talk to you.”

“And see that I don’t get away?”

“Oh no, heavens, no, nothing like that! Why should you want to get away?”

“I thought perhaps you thought I wanted to get away.”

“And why should I be thinking anything like that, Mr. Clane? What have you got to get away for?”

“Nothing.”

“That’s right, nothing at all. Why, no, we wouldn’t consider for a minute that you wanted to get away. No, no, you’ll just sit there, and I know you won’t mind waiting to tell us your story. Let’s see now, you felt it was pretty deserted down here and a person would have a hard time getting to a telephone. That’s why you decided to go over and use that particular instrument to call us.”

“That’s right.”

“Well, if this neighborhood is so isolated, how did you happen to get down here?”

“In a taxicab.”

“And then you let the cab go?”

“That’s right.”

“You should have kept it waiting. You might have had some difficulty getting another one.”

“I thought that Mr. Gloster would take me home.”

“Oh, you knew Mr. Gloster was here?”

“Naturally.”

“Well, we’ll find out all about that later on, Mr. Clane. If you’ll just go out and sit in the car now, I’ll go to work and do the chores here. Just a lot of routine, you know, covering things with powder, looking for fingerprints. And, by the way, I guess you’d better give the boy your fingerprints out there. Just a little messy, you know, gets the ends of your fingers smeared up with ink; but it’s one of the things we have to do. You’ve been in this room and you’ve left fingerprints here and there and of course we want to be able to identify those fingerprints of yours when we find them. Wouldn’t want to find some real good latent print and think we had the print of the murderer, and then after a while find out that it was the fingerprint of Mr. Terry Clane. That would be embarrassing, wouldn’t it, ha, ha, ha!”

“Very embarrassing,” Clane agreed.

“All right, just step out there. Fred, would you mind taking Mr. Clane’s prints? Then you can sit out in the car with him and talk to him. He’s an interesting chap to talk to. Isn’t interested in baseball and prize fights and the things you’d ordinarily talk about. He’s interested in Oriental philosophy. Don’t try to talk with him about that because you don’t know anything about it, but perhaps you can get him to talk with you while you listen. And don’t ask him any questions about the case. Leave that for me. I wouldn’t want him to have to repeat what he has to say. I’ll be out just as soon as I can get things going here. Now if you boys will set up the cameras there, we’ll get some pictures first rattle out of the box. You can plug into that outside socket and string your wire in for your floodlights. And we might start taking some measurements of the position of the body and the location of the furniture. The district attorney will be wanting a map of the place. You know how it is, Clane. Lawyers have a certain rigmarole they go through with and the district attorney will want something he can produce as People’s Exhibit Number One. All right, Fred, take Mr. Clane out in the car and try to keep him interested, keep him talking.”

Clane followed the officer out to the car where he was duly fingerprinted and then given a rag on which he could wipe off the surplus ink from the tips of his fingers. The manner in which the officer whom Inspector Malloy referred to as Fred tried to keep up a conversation, coupled with what Malloy had said, made Clane realize that these officers were trying to keep him from having a chance to think up some good story. They wanted to keep his mind thoroughly occupied.

Fred asked Clane all about China, all about the Chinese people, about the Chinese religion, about Clane’s trip across on the boat, about a hundred and one incidental things. Some of the questions were searching and intelligent, some of them were just questions; but there was a continuing stream of questions. Clane had no opportunity whatever to relax into thoughtful silence. He was peppered with verbal question marks, coming with what at times seemed to be the unceasing rapidity of hail falling on a tin roof. But Clane, realizing that this was part of Malloy’s test and that any attempt on his part to become silent would be duly reported to the Inspector and considered as a suspicious circumstance, kept his good nature and answered the questions, for the most part making his answers brief so that the burden of carrying on the conversation fell upon Fred. But at the end of fifteen minutes Clane was forced to admit that this was a game at which Fred was adept. Evidently he had done it before. Clane had a shrewd suspicion that the officer was hardly listening to his answers but was using the period during which Clane was talking to formulate some new question.

At the end of twenty minutes Inspector Malloy came barging out of the building, his genial bluff good nature a mask behind which his busy brain went about its business.

“Well, well, well, Clane,” he said, “I can see that Fred’s been pumping you to find out all about the Orient. I should have cautioned you about Fred. He’s after information all the time. Too bad you don’t know more about baseball. Fred’s an expert, can tell you everything about any player in any of the leagues. You get to talking with him about baseball and he’ll be betting you money first thing you know, and you won’t stand a chance, Mr. Clane. But I suppose Fred’s an expert on the Orient now. Now if you wouldn’t mind stepping right in here, Mr. Clane, and... But before you do that, perhaps you’d better show us just what happened. Now you came here in a taxi.”

“That’s right.”

“Now where did you get that taxi?”

“It was one I just happened to find cruising along the street.”

“Lucky, that’s what you are,” Malloy said. “You know, lots of people would be prowling around the streets looking for a taxicab for an hour or so and wouldn’t get it. But you just pop out of your apartment and bang, there’s a taxicab right there. That right?”

“Not right there, I had to walk two or three blocks.”

“Walk two or three blocks. Well, well, well, think of it, stepping out and finding a taxi within two or three blocks. That’s marvelous. That’s really wonderful. I guess you’re just lucky. Perhaps it’s a good thing you didn’t talk baseball and get a bet out of him, Fred. Mr. Clane’s lucky enough so he might have won just on sheer luck, ha, ha. Now right this way, Mr. Clane. But before we do that, let’s pause here just for a moment. Your taxi swung around and made a turn. Yes, I can see it did. Here’s some tracks that must have been made by the car you came down in. So the taxi stopped about here and let you off.”

“That’s right.”

“Then what did you do?”

“I walked toward the door of the building.”

“Tut, tut, tut, Mr. Clane,” Malloy said. “You mustn’t do that.”

“Mustn’t do what?”

Malloy was grinning at him. “Mustn’t cheat your cab driver out of his fare,” he said. “You told me you let the cabby go.”

“That’s right. I did.”

“Then you must have paid him off.”

Clane smiled. “I overlooked that.”

“You mean you overlooked paying him off?”

“No, overlooked telling you about it.”

“Come, come, Mr. Clane, you mustn’t do that. Now as I remember it, you’ve had quite a bit of rather unusual mental training?

“Seems to me I heard once that you knew all about concentration. I recall that in the Mandra case the district attorney told me to watch out for you. A man with a trained mind that way mustn’t forget those little things. Now, don’t misunderstand me, Mr. Clane, I want you to tell me everything you did, absolutely everything. Understand?”

“I understand.”

“Nothing is too trivial. Nothing is too small. I want you to just show me what you did and tell me what you did. Now you were standing right here when you got out of the taxicab?”

“Well, about over in here,” Clane said.

“All right, you were standing over there. Now you reached down in your pockets and took out some money and paid the cab?”

“That’s right.”

“How much was the amount of the bill?”

Clane suddenly realized the trap into which he had been led. Inspector Malloy would subsequently check up on the exact distance from a point within two or three blocks of his apartment to this warehouse. Clane, having recently arrived from the Orient, being unfamiliar with present taxicab rates and not knowing the distance, would be certain to blunder in case he had not come in a taxicab.

Clane’s mind raced to meet the situation. He answered Malloy’s question with no apparent hesitancy. “I don’t know, Inspector. I gave the man a bill and told him to keep the change.”

“A bill?”

“That’s right.”

“What kind of a bill? Dollar bill? Two-dollar bill? Five-dollar bill?”

“A two-dollar bill.”

“Well, well, well, well,” Inspector Malloy said. “That’s generous of you. The fare probably wouldn’t have been that much.”

“I didn’t think it would be, but didn’t know.”

“You didn’t look at the meter?”

“No, I didn’t. I was thinking about something else and just got out and handed the man a two-dollar bill.”

“Well now, that’s a point, Mr. Clane. You see now why I told you that no detail was too small. We might have had some trouble finding the cab driver who drove you down here. But the way you handed him a two-dollar bill and told him to keep the change, we shouldn’t have any difficulty. Lots of people consider two-dollar bills bad luck, you know. A cabby wouldn’t refuse to take it, but he’d change it into something else first chance he had. That’s a break for us, Mr. Clane. A two-dollar bill, and told him to keep the change. That shows how it is in this game. You just can’t overlook anything, no matter how small it is. You see what you’ve done? You’ve given us an excellent means of finding that cab driver. That’ll be a break for you because he’ll substantiate your story. Now you gave him a two-dollar bill and told him to be on his way?”

“That’s right.”

“Now why did you come here in the first place?”

“Because Mr. Gloster asked me to meet him here.”

“Asked you to meet him here? Now that’s strange. Rather a peculiar place for an appointment, isn’t it?”

“I thought it was after I arrived.”

“That’s right. The lights weren’t on, you said?”

“No, they weren’t on.”

“District was all dark?”

“Yes.”

“And you were certain Gloster had told you to meet him here?”

“That was the address he had given me.”

“And how did he ask you?”

“Over the telephone.”

“Over the telephone. Know what time that call came in?”

“No, I don’t. It was some time after eleven.”

“About how long before you got here?”

“Oh, within say twenty minutes.”

“Within twenty minutes. Now where was he telephoning from?”

“He didn’t say.”

“But you assumed he was telephoning from here?”

“Well, I didn’t know. He had told me to meet him here and I told him I would.”

“Quite friendly with him, were you?”

“No, I was not friendly with him.”

“Not hostile to him, were you? Surely you didn’t have anything against the man?”

“No.”

“Just more or less indifferent?”

“More or less.”

“Well, which is it? More? or less?”

Clane laughed and said, “It’s neither. I was just indifferent to the man.”

“But you knew him?”

“Yes, I knew him.”

“And you’d got off the boat from China this afternoon, I believe?”

“That’s right.”

“And then had a session with the police. That was unfortunate. I’m sorry about that. Do you know the first thing I said when I heard that they’d grabbed you at the dock and taken you up for questioning? I said, ‘That’s too bad. That really is. Here’s Mr. Clane just arrived from China. He’s been away from this country for a long time and there are people he wants to see and... well, it’s just too bad, that’s all’.”

Clane waited, knowing that Malloy would give him no respite from the flow of seemingly innocent questions which were, nevertheless, designed to trap Clane into such a position that the incongruity of his statements would soon become apparent.

Knowing Inspector Malloy’s technique from previous experience, Clane sought to take advantage of every second’s lull in the conversation to think ahead.

“So you got off here and found that this man Gloster wasn’t here and paid off the cab.”

“That’s right.”

“Didn’t the cab driver ask if you wanted him to wait?”

“Yes.”

“And you told him no?”

“That’s right.”

“You’re a brave man, Mr. Clane. But then I suppose you’ve been in lots of tough places in your life, and a dark section of a big city doesn’t hold any particular terrors for you. But as you so aptly pointed out, a person would have to walk perhaps for a mile or two in order to find any telephone down here, and it’s pretty dark and deserted. Not the sort of district you’d pick out for an evening stroll, is it?”

“No.”

“And yet, despite the facts that you had an appointment with Gloster, that Gloster apparently wasn’t here to keep that appointment, that twenty minutes had elapsed from the time Gloster had telephoned you and he still wasn’t here, and the building was dark, and the district seemed to be deserted, you let the cab driver go?”

“That’s right. You see, I felt certain Mr. Gloster would be here.”

“You knew he was a man of his word, eh?”

“I thought he’d be.”

“A great deal of confidence to have in a man you hardly knew. I believe you said you hardly knew him?”

“I knew him. I wasn’t particularly friendly, but I wasn’t unfriendly. I just knew him.”

“Just a matter of indifference, I take it.”

“That’s right.”

“We’ve been all over that before, haven’t we? Ha, ha. We keep going around in circles. Well, let’s get away from that circle. Now did you notice this automobile parked over here when you drove up?”

“I did.”

“Did it occur to you that that might be Gloster’s automobile?”

“I didn’t think very much about it one way or the other.”

“Well, it’s his automobile.”

“Yes, I assume now that it must have been. Unless Gloster came here by cab.”

“That’s right. That’s Gloster’s automobile. It was parked there, right in that same position when you arrived?”

“Yes.”

“Well, that’s fine. Then we know that Gloster must have been here and lying dead in that office while you were out here paying off the cab driver. Giving him a two-dollar bill and telling him to keep the change. That’s right, isn’t it, Mr. Clane?”

“That’s right.”

“Well, then we may assume that the cab bill was less than two dollars. Probably less than a dollar seventy-five. If it had been more than a dollar seventy-five, the cab driver would have told you about it. He’d have wanted more than a two-bit tip. Well, perhaps more than a dollar and eighty cents. So we’ll assume that from the place you came to this place the bill was less than a dollar and eighty cents, and you let the cab driver go. All right, we’re that far. Now you watched the cab drive away, didn’t you?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“You didn’t?”

“No. I started right for the door of the Eastern Art Import and Trading Company here.”

“Started right for the door?”

“That’s right.”

“Despite the fact that the building was dark and the man you expected to meet apparently wasn’t here, you started for the door?”

“That’s right.”

“Well, now, isn’t that a bit unusual, Mr. Clane, for a person to try to enter a dark building where apparently no one...”

“I didn’t say I tried to enter the building.”

“But you did enter it, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Then do you want me to understand that you entered it without trying? Ha, ha, ha! That’s rather illogical, Mr. Clane.”

“Perhaps,” Clane said, “you’d better let me go ahead and give it to you in narrative form the way it happened.”

“Oh, we’re doing very well by this question-and-answer method. It enables me to keep right on the subject. But, let’s see now. You walked toward the entrance of the building, but you didn’t intend to enter. Is that right?”

“I intended to stand in the doorway of the building, waiting for Mr. Gloster. There was no particular reason to remain standing here in the middle of the street.”

“Well, that’s right. It’s not the middle of the street. It’s pretty much to one side of it, but I can see your point. You went over intending perhaps to sit down on the doorstep there?”

“That’s right.”

“Well, looking at it that way, that’s perfectly logical, Mr. Clane. So you went over and sat down on the doorstep?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“You didn’t?”

“No.”

“But I thought you told me that’s what you intended to do?”

“It is.”

“Then something changed your mind. You must have seen something. You must have noticed something a little out of the ordinary.”

“That’s right.”

“What was it?”

“When I got over here, I saw that the door was partially open.”

“Well, now that’s something, Mr. Clane. That’s a very fine point, a very fine point indeed. The door was partially open. You see how we’re getting things just by having you go over every detail of what happened. That door being partially open may be quite a clue. You’re sure the door was partially open?”

“That’s right.”

“So you walked right in?”

“No,” Clane said, “I called first.”

“You called. What did you call?”

I said, “Oh, Gloster!”

“And got no answer, I take it?”

“That’s right.”

“So then you walked right in in the dark?”

“No,” Clane said, “I didn’t. I had a little flashlight in my pocket.”

“A little flashlight,” Malloy said. “Well now, that’s something. You really go prepared, Mr. Clane. You really do. When you go to call on a person, you take a flashlight with you.”

Clane said, somewhat angrily, “It’s not an unreasonable precaution. When I was in the Orient, I never went out without...”

“That’s it. That’s it,” Malloy said, his voice showing relief. “I’d forgotten about your being in the Orient. Of course, that explains it. Here a person ordinarily wouldn’t take a flashlight in going to pay a sociable visit. But you’ve been in the Orient. Streets are narrow and dark, and... why. certainly, that accounts for it. You’ll pardon me, Mr. Clane. Go right ahead. You had a little flashlight so you took the flashlight out and walked into the office...”

“No,” Clane said. “Remember I told you about the light switch. I took the flashlight out and stepped inside the door and looked around for a light switch. I found the light switch right there by the door. Apparently it’s a master switch that turns on all the lights in the building.”

“Of course,” Malloy said, his voice indicating that he was disgusted with himself. “I remember you told me you turned on the lights. You used your flashlight to look for a light switch, and then you found the light switch and turned on all the lights and then you nut the flashlight back in your pocket.”

“That’s right.”

“And oh, by the way, you were alone, Mr. Clane? I didn’t ask you specifically about that, but I gather you were alone.”

“If there had been anyone in the taxicab with me, I’d have told you,” Clane said.

“I’m satisfied you would. I’m satisfied you would. But you know the way things are, Mr. Clane. I’m just an inspector and I’m supposed to make a report, and I’m supposed to cover everything in that report — absolutely everything. Now go right ahead. You were in the building here all alone. The lights had snapped on and you could see the entire warehouse and that door over there to the office? Now let’s just go stand right in the position where you were when you turned the lights on. All right. You were standing right here. Now you put the flashlight back in your pocket, I take it. There was no need for having a flashlight after the lights came on.”

“That’s right.”

“Then you put the flashlight back in your pocket and stood there with the lights on. Now how about this door into the office here? Was that open?”

“It was slightly open.”

“So you walked right in.”

“I paused and called out Gloster’s name.”

“I see. And then you pushed the door open.”

“That’s right.”

“And what was the first thing you saw?”

“I don’t know. I just saw the room generally.”

“You didn’t see the body right away?”

“Not right away. No.”

“Now did it occur to you, Mr. Clane, that you’d gone rather far? That you’d gone to a perfectly strange place, one in which you had no interest, had turned on the lights, and entered the place?”

“Not right at the time,” Clane said. “One step sort of led to another rather naturally.”

“I see. But later on it occurred to you that your actions were... well, shall we say, just a bit unusual?”

“Not unusual, I would say. But the culminating effect of those actions was, of course, to leave me standing in this room.”

“Exactly. And you put that rather cleverly, Mr. Clane. Rather unusual for a man who was meeting a man who wasn’t even a friend, a man to whom he was more or less indifferent. You just walked right in, didn’t you?”

“Well, when I saw the open door, I stepped inside. And then I looked for a light switch and then I saw the light switch and saw this other open door, and stepped in here.”

“Yes, I can see when you put it that way that one thing sort of led to another. Now go ahead, Mr. Clane. You saw the body.”

“That’s right.”

“And what was the first thing you said when you saw the body, Mr. Clane?”

“Why I didn’t say anything.”

Malloy looked at him in surprise. “You didn’t say anything, Mr. Clane?”

“Nothing.”

“Why, why not? Didn’t it impress you as being unusual to find a body lying here?”

“Naturally.”

“And yet you didn’t mention it, didn’t say a word?”

“To whom would I have addressed the remark?” Clane asked.

Inspector Malloy slapped his thigh with his palm. “Of course,” he said, “you were alone. I’d overlooked that for a minute. Wasn’t anyone with you? A woman perhaps?”

“I think we’ve already gone over that.”

“So we have, so we have. But I just wanted to be certain. That’s right. You didn’t say anything because there wasn’t anyone with you to say it to. You’re not the type of person who would be apt to go around talking to yourself. So you saw the body, and then what did you do?”

“Well, I stepped back out of the room and started to switch the lights off. Then I realized that I would have to notify the police and that I was in a very peculiar position when it came to notifying the police. I hardly wished to go out looking for a telephone.”

“Of course you knew you shouldn’t touch anything, Mr. Clane.”

“Of course. I understood that as a general proposition,” Clane said. “But I also knew that I would be supposed to notify the police immediately of finding the body of a murdered man this way, and I didn’t want to leave the place.”

“Well, I can see your point. There’s a good deal to that. Yes, I can see the point. You felt that there might be quite a delay in getting to a telephone.”

“And,” Clane went on dryly, “in case there should be a watchman around I didn’t want to be placed in the position of having someone seeing me switch out the lights and leave a building in which there was the body of a freshly murdered man.”

“A freshly murdered man? Then you thought the shooting had just been done, Mr. Clane?”

“I didn’t know. I assumed that it might have been.”

“Well, yes, I can see your point. Yes, it might have been very embarrassing if someone had seen you leaving the building and then before you got to a telephone a discovery had been made and people would have said, ‘That Mr. Clane now, he must have been the last man to see Gloster alive.’ Yes, yes, I can see your point. Very embarrassing position for you to be put in, Mr. Clane. So you went right over to the telephone and called the police.”

“That’s right.”

“And asked for Homicide?”

“Yes.”

“Well, now that seems to cover the situation. By the way, did you notice this cot over here that has the blankets on it and the canned goods? And the wastebasket with the empty cans? You must have if you were prowling around enough to have noticed a bullet.”

“I wasn’t prowling around,” Clane said.

“But you did notice the bullet?”

“Yes.”

“That’s rather a small object.”

“It had plowed up a fresh sliver there in the woodwork. Naturally I noticed it. It was right by the telephone.”

“That’s right, that’s right,” Malloy said apologetically. “I’d forgotten about that, Mr. Clane. You’ll pardon me for what I said about prowling around. Of course, you went over to use the telephone and naturally noticed that fresh sliver there. Of course you would, I should have realized that. It’s natural that you would have noticed it. But let’s get back to this cot and the canned goods and the cooking utensils. You noticed those?”

“Yes.”

“Yes, naturally you would have. A man who is trained to notice details like a bullet would have noticed a whole stack of canned goods. I was just wasting your time and mine asking the question. Now what impression did that make on you, Mr. Clane?”

Clane said, “I assumed that someone had been living here.”

“Someone. Now did you have any idea who that someone might have been?”

“No.”

“Well now, you know it’s a very peculiar thing, Mr. Clane, but here’s Edward Harold, who murdered one of the members of this here Chinese art company, and he’s just as apt as not to have taken some keys from the body of the man he murdered. Keys, let us say, which would fit the warehouse. Did that ever occur to you?”

“No.”

“And, of course, the way we’ve been watching things — the hotels and rooming houses and apartment houses — and getting reports from any new transient that showed up, it almost stands to reason that this man Harold had to be hiding somewhere in a place just about like this, doesn’t it?”

Clane said, “I’m afraid, Inspector, that the ideas of an amateur would be of no value to you on a case of this kind. It’s rather late and I’d like to tell you what I saw and then get back to bed. I’ve had a strenuous day. I don’t feel very much like speculating on what might or might not have happened.”

“Yes, yes, of course,” Inspector Malloy said. “I understand exactly how you feel, Mr. Clane, but what I’m trying to get at is whether perhaps the thought didn’t flash through your mind that this man Harold had been hiding here?”

“I see nothing to indicate to me that the man who was living here was Edward Harold. After all, Inspector, you must remember that I don’t know Edward Harold. I’ve never met him.”

“You haven’t?”

“No.”

“Well, well, well, that’s a new angle. That’s something I hadn’t considered. Interesting too, the way you get around. You arrive here from China and the first thing you know you’re all mixed up in this murder case. Well, well, let’s see. You want to go home and I’ll just ask you a few more routine questions. Now you’re certain that you didn’t know that Harold was here when you came to call and you didn’t come to call on Harold instead of this man Gloster?”

“I have told you,” Clane said with dignity, “that Gloster telephoned to me. He was the one who suggested that I meet him at this address.”

“That’s right, that’s right. And you’re certain you came alone?”

“Yes.”

“There wasn’t a woman in that taxicab with you?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Well now, that’s strange, that is indeed. You didn’t carry anything with you that belonged to a woman, did you?”

“Certainly not.”

Malloy suddenly turned to one of the men and said, “Let me have that bag.”

The man handed him a woman’s black handbag.

One look at it and Clane realized that it was Cynthia Renton’s handbag. The purse she had been carrying with her that evening.

“Now here’s a handbag or purse, whichever you want to call it,” Inspector Malloy went on, “that seems to have been brought here by a woman. The driving license in there is in the name of Cynthia Renton and there’s twenty-five hundred dollars in twenty-dollar bills. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

Clane shook his head.

“You didn’t bring it with you?”

Again Clane shook his head.

“About what time would you say that you arrived here?” Malloy asked.

Clane looked at his watch. “Well, let’s see. I would say that I arrived here — oh, around midnight. Perhaps four or five minutes before twelve.”

“That’s your best guess?”

“Yes.”

“And you didn’t see anything of a woman here?”

“No.”

“Now you know this Cynthia Renton?”

“Yes.”

“Quite well?”

“Yes.”

“A very close friend of yours?”

“Yes.”

“You were going with her? You were pretty much wrapped up in her when you were here last, weren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re quite certain she wasn’t here visiting this Edward Harold and she asked you to come and see her and she was the one who telephoned and not George Closter?”

“I’ve answered that several times.”

“I know you have, Mr. Clane, and you’ll pardon me for asking it again, but I want to be absolutely sure that there couldn’t have been any mistake. It was Gloster who telephoned you?”

“Yes.”

“And you know Gloster?”

“Yes.”

“You talked with him?”

“Yes.”

“When was the last time you saw him before the murder?”

“Earlier this evening.”

“Earlier this evening? Well, well, well! Now isn’t that something? It just goes to show what happens when we bring out all these little details. Now what was the occasion of meeting him that time, Mr. Clane?”

“I had an appointment with Mr. Gloster, Stacey Nevis and a man by the name of Ricardo Taonon. Taonon didn’t show up. I met the other two.”

“Indeed, and why did you meet them?”

“I had a business matter to discuss with them.”

“Now aren’t those the men who are the partners in this here Oriental art company?”

“You mean the Eastern Art Import and Trading Company?”

“That’s it. I’m always getting these business names mixed up. My memory isn’t as good as it once was. But aren’t those the men who are partners in that company?”

“I believe so, yes.”

“And you wanted to see them?”

“Yes.”

“You had an appointment with them?”

“Yes.”

“And you saw this man Gloster and Nevis?”

“Yes.”

“Where?”

“At the office of Stacey Nevis.”

“And you talked with these men?”

“Yes.”

“For about how long?”

“Oh, ten or fifteen minutes.”

“Well, now, isn’t that interesting? And then the next rattle out of the box Mr. Gloster telephoned you at some unusual hour of the night. What time would you say it was?”

“Oh, about eleven — perhaps ten minutes past.”

“And Gloster asked you to come down here?”

“Yes.”

“And you came right away?”

“Not right away,” Clane said, sensing the trap. “I told him that I would be down shortly, and I dressed. I was lounging around in a dressing gown and pajamas.”

“I see, I see. You told him you’d be down. You didn’t tell him just how soon?”

“No.”

“You told him perhaps right away?”

“I may have given him that impression,” Clane said, aware of the fact that it was quite possible the police had had his line tapped and knew all about that conversation.

“But you didn’t get here right away?”

“No.”

“You say you got here around twelve?”

“Yes.”

“And you found a cruising taxicab very shortly after you’d left your place?”

“Yes.”

“And came here right away in it?”

“Yes.”

Inspector Malloy abruptly pushed out his hand, grabbed Clane’s hand once more in a bone-crushing grip and pumped his arm up and down. “Thank you ever so much, Mr. Clane. Thank you very much indeed. You’ve been a real help, you really have. You have no idea how much help you’ve given me. I don’t think you fully appreciate how much you’ve helped me out. And I won’t detain you any longer. I know you’re sleepy, I know you’ve had a hard day. Freddy, will you take Mr. Clane home? Drive him right to his apartment. He’ll give you the address and you drive him there by the shortest route. Get him home just as soon as you can. And good night, Mr. Clane. That is, good morning. I hope you sleep tight.”

“Thank you,” Clane said.

Inspector Malloy started back for the warehouse. Freddy took Clane’s arm, and with official thoroughness piloted him over toward the police car.

At the door of the warehouse Inspector Malloy called out as though it had been only an afterthought, “By the way, Freddy, take a look at the trip mileage, will you? Find out just exactly how far it is from here to Mr. Clane’s apartment down to a tenth of a mile, and drive slowly, don’t use the siren, keep within the legal limits. Drive just about the way you would if you were a taxi driver, and make a note of just how far it is and just how long it takes you to drive it. Good night, Mr. Clane — that is, good morning, and thank you very, very much.”